Rodrigues Alves

Presidency (1902–1906)

Upon taking office, according to his biographer, Gastão Pereira da Silva, his main objective was to improve the sanitation in the capital city, Rio de Janeiro, and to improve its harbour. Alves believed that the city's poor sanitation weakened the entire nation's communities and also ruined its image abroad. Rio de Janeiro's population had increased twofold, and the city had not been prepared to face the rapid spread of diseases. Families lived in a single house and rats and mosquitos were rampant. Rodrigues Alves appointed members of his cabinet based on how capable he considered them to be, and did not include any politicians from "the big states", and gave the people he appointed a free hand within his program.

His administration created a program to eliminate diseases such as bubonic plague and yellow fever in the capital and remodel it, the plans drew skepticism from the public, who believed that he was squandering money and reviving the illusions that caused the Encilhamento. Few believed the plans could succeed. Among his presidencial cabinet was the first minister of the navy in the history of Brazil, Julio de César Noronha. During his presidency, he appointed Oswaldo Cruz to handle public health, and Pereira Passos as Mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

Oswaldo Cruz had hardly announced his measures when strong opposition lined up against him, headed by groups of politicians and military officers who aimed to revive the idea of a military dictatorship. Local newspapers stirred up popular prejudice against him and his assistants, eager for scandal, and labelled them "mosquito swatters", while writers and journalists frequently satirised him. The courts issued habeas corpus to protect people against the cleaning efforts of public workers. Despite criticism, he continued on with his plans. In 1903, deaths from yellow fever were 584. The next year, they had decreased to 53. By 1906, the plague had practically disappeared. After solving the problem of Yellow fever, he turned his attention to smallpox, and issued mandatory vaccination in Rio de Janeiro on November 9 of 1904. This caused the Vaccine Revolt as many of the poor saw mandatory vaccination as a struggle against state intervention in their private lives. Following the Vaccine Revolt, opposition to mandatory vaccination eroded, and other cities were stimulated by Rio's example.

While Oswaldo Cruz tackled the healthcare problems of the capital, its mayor, Pereira Passos oversaw its urbanisation, inspired by modern European urban centers. During his mayorship, the port of Rio de Janeiro was extended and the old blocks with their cortiços were demolished, displacing marginalized families while the workers were forced to the rural countryside, where transportation to their workplaces would cost more half or more of their daily salary. The residents were moved to the suburbs, which gave space for the enlargement of streets and new avenues. He also exercised strict city control; he banned beggars from the streets, outlawed cows and other livestock from roaming the city, and forbade spitting in public. The first automobiles began to appear, while the city's light, power and transit systems underwent renovation. Other cities soon followed Rio de Janeiro's example, the city of São Paulo began to rise rapidly. During this time, a new capital for the state of Minas Gerais, was built, Belo Horizonte. The government was able to afford these measures from Brazil's rubber sales; at the time the country produced 97% of all rubber in the world.

Foreign Relations

Border disputes with Bolivia, Uruguay, British Guiana, and Dutch Guyana were resolved during his presidency by Alves' foreign minister José Maria da Silva Paranhos. In 1903 the Bolivian state of Acre was integrated into Brazil after a 4-year long border conflict between the two countries as the result of the Treaty of Petrópolis. (Though prior to its integration into Brazil there were two secessionist republics named the Republic of Acre) The treaty stated that in exchange for Brazil annexing Acre, 2 million pounds sterling would compensated to Bolivia by Brazil, and the latter would also build the Madeira-Mamoré Railroad. The same year, he faced the first general strike in the capital city on August 15, led by textile workers who demanded raise in salary and the eight-hour work day for all workers.

Rodrigues Alves was never popular among politicians, though he did have the affection and esteem of the nation at large. He was a monarchist which suspicion from republican politicians. He also did not have the full support of São Paulo and its politicians, who still held a grudge against him for refusing to sign the Taubaté Agreement, a coffee Valorisation proposal, and for refusing to name Bernardino de Campos as his successor in the 1906 presidential election. The reason as to why he refused these proposals was because the majority of the states opposed Bernardino's candidacy, while attempts in Brazil's history to artificially increase the price of coffee up to that point had been unsuccessful.

Later life and death

He ran again for the presidency in 1918, won the election with over 99% of the vote, and was scheduled to take office on 15 November 1918. He was unable to do so because of illness, and he died on 16 January 1919, a victim of the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918–1919.